First I heard the explanation on The Early Show this past Friday, then I saw the episode where Richard slapped his dick into Susan.
From The Early Show, with Susan and Richard appearing together: Jeff apparently gave conflicting directions to the two teams, or the teams understood them differently. Sue said that her team's understanding was that they had to follow a specific path, or at least partial path (the route back?). She said every member of her team followed it, thinking it was the rule.
Just before the incident, she was about to go the other way, realized she was about to make a mistake, and turned to avoid being disqualified. Richard's team had no such direction, and went arbitrarily. So when Richard saw her reverse course right after he stripped down, he thought she was intentionally changing course and coming by him to force him to brush against her while naked. So he played into it. He thought she started it.
It really was a misunderstanding. And she agreed about all that. But still, he pushed it way too far. It really is bad enough being naked. I mean, come on. Who wants to see that all the time, with no choice in the matter. They didn't agree to attend a nudist colony. The point Sue made on The Early Show was that if he wants to be naked, and feels comfortable with it, fine, but he should take into account how other people react to it, their feelings too. I think that's totally valid. I wouldn't walk into the office at my client's naked. Or walk out of the restroom with my dick out of my fly. Him doing that all the time was already kind of obnoxious. Then to push it further . . . No way he should have done that.
And he didn't just brush by her, apparently he flopped it against her. Then he turned around behind her, and flopped it against her backside again. That's what it looks like on the clip. (Though those bozos at CBS keep showing a shortened clip, that only shows him brushing by, which totally misrepresents what happened. That initially had me thinking it was no big deal.) That really is way over the line. To slap your dick against a married woman? You don't have that right. I'm even a boundary-crossing kind of guy, and no way could I justify that.
It was really wrong, and for some people, that's a really significant transgression. Sue had every right to be appalled. She said that in her whole life, the only person she has ever been with was her husband. Basically, she said that his is the only penis she ever touched in her life. And she wanted it that way, it made it special for her. Now and for the rest of her life, she has contacted two: her husband's and Richard's. That's a huge deal for her. It changes the intimacy she has with her husband in a very profound way. That is so, so wrong of Richard to rob her of that.
Of course he had no idea he was doing that. He never intended to do that, or realized it, and later she said she recognized that, and her anger subsided when she realized he never would have done it if he had known. So it wasn't intentional on his part, but it was totally thoughtless. He still robbed her of it. It was still a monumental theft to her.
The guy needs to think a little more before he acts. Especially once he gets his clothes off.
And for the moment, he needs to apologize. I was glad to see on The Early Show that they have both gotten past it, but appalled that he refuses to apologize. He doesn't think he did anything wrong. What an ass.
Getting a dickslap from a guy I find gross would be kinda gross, but it wouldn't scar me. But that's just me. I live my life differently than Sue and don't cherish that kind of never-experienced-anyone-but-my-husband kind of thing. But I understand some people do and it's important to them. I have crossed some boundaries that I regret, but even I can see the huge red line on that one. Richard needs to take a cold, hard look at other peoples' values, and consider what he is doing to them. He needs to get a grip.
(More discussion of this going on in the comments thread linked below.)
My Survivor All Stars page.
Comments: Head here all week for Episode 6 (March 4) comments -- combined with the past two weeks'
Dutton (Penguin) in early 2009. 
